A little over four years ago when I was leading the team at Bolt, I realised something strange. I had no clear picture of what we were really spending to look after our people, and the people we were spending it on had even less.
Most employees think their compensation is just their salary. It isn't.
On top of that number, their employer is usually spending another 10-20% on pension, health cover, life and critical illness, and flexible benefits. It's just that most people have no idea it's actually doing something for them, which can lead to awkward conversations and unappreciated investments.
Today we're launching Total Reward: a single view of everything an employee actually gets, built right into Kota.
What is Total Reward?
Total Reward statements give employees and employers one place to see the full value of a package. Salary, pension, health, life, critical illness and flex broken down and laid out as part of their total compensation. For employees, it's a way to finally see what they're worth. For employers, it's a way to put that value on the table during performance reviews and retention conversations.
We already hold most of this data in Kota. We just never surfaced it as a total picture. Now we do.
Why now?
Two reasons. First, it's the single most requested gap in our platform. Customers have called it mission critical. Second, the EU Pay Transparency Directive is pushing every employer toward being clearer about pay and benefits. You have to do this anyway. Total Reward lets you do it better than everyone else.
How does this help employers and employees?
Total Reward helps employers and employees stay on the same page for the important conversations:
- Performance. A tool for comp conversations. Show people the full value of what they get, not just salary.
- Retention. When employees can see the real value of their compensation package, they stop undervaluing it.
Why is this hard for others to do well?
Total reward statements today are built by hand, infrequently, by admins stitching data together from a dozen sources. It's a nightmare, so it rarely happens. Because Kota already runs both the difficult insurance benefits and flexible benefits through a deeply integrated platform, we can render an accurate, live total-reward picture without the manual work.
Unlike other Total Reward solutions on the market, it isn't a static once-a-year PDF. It updates live with with the benefits already running in Kota.
What's in Total, and what's next?
V1 keeps it simple: pension, health, life, critical illness and flexible benefits in one employee view, with an employer view across the whole team. Next on the roadmap: deeper payroll data and equity integrations to make the picture even more complete.
